Generally, a shoe comprises a sole, serving as the bottom of a shoe, and an upper, covering the top and sides of a user's foot. When a user puts on a shoe, the user typically first puts his or her toes through a hole in the upper of the shoe and then puts the rest of his or her foot into the shoe. At this time, the heal of the user's foot is first placed on an upper portion of a rear part of the upper of the shoe, and then the user pulls backward the rear part of the upper of the shoe so that the user's foot can easily slip into the shoe if the size of the shoe fits the user's foot. In order to conduct such a motion to put on the shoe, the user must bend over and put a shoehorn or a finger in between the counter of the shoe and the heel of the user's foot.
The weak, the old, and users who have difficulty moving encounter difficulty putting on their shoes through the above-described motions.
For example, in the case in which the users are children, since shoes for children are relatively small in comparison with shoes for adults even though they have the same shape as shoes for adults, the elasticity of the upper of shoes for children, which is made of leather or artificial leather, is less than that of shoes for adults. Accordingly, such shoes are difficult for children to wear. Further, in the case in which the users are old people, since old people have difficulty squatting and leaning forward, it is hard for old people to conduct such motions. Such problems are also encountered by corpulent people, handicapped people, and patients.
In order to solve the above-described problem, an improved shoe is disclosed in Korean Utility Model No. 95-5408. The improved shoe has elastic members disposed in the middle portions of left and right sides, respectively, of the upper of a shoe, in order to help a user easily put on the shoe. However, the improved shoe described in Korean Utility Model No. 95-5408 has a disadvantageous effect in that the elastic members can be easily damaged by physical shocks and corrosive chemicals because the elastic members are made of a material which has relatively poor durability in comparison with the upper of the shoe.
In order to solve the advantageous effect encountered in the above-described shoe, a shoe with a dual upper has been developed and a patent application therefor has been filed and assigned Korean Patent Application No. 2005-124252. As shown in FIG. 1, the upper of the shoe is structured in a manner such that an internal upper 10 of the shoe has cuts 11 at the left and right sides thereof, band members 12 are provided at the cuts 11, and the internal upper is surrounded by an external upper 30. That is, since the external upper covers the internal upper, the durability of the shoe is improved. However, this type of shoe also has problems. That is, since it is difficult to manufacture the dual upper of the shoe in an automatic production line, the upper of the shoe must be manufactured by hand. Accordingly, productivity thereof is very low. Further, the external upper of the shoe is usually wide, and a seam in the counter of the upper of the shoe is not tidy, so that the shoe does not have a good appearance. Still further, when fixing the external upper 30 to the internal upper 10, or separating the external upper 30 from the internal upper 10, the left side and the right side of the upper must be worked on separately to prepare therefor, which is troublesome.